A surprising number of Western studies or translations of the Sufi thinker and mystic Ibn Al'Arabi (1165–1240) make some kind of reference to the German preacher Meister Eckhart (1260–1327). The strength and conviction behind such references vary—while some simply mention Eckhart in passing, others (such as R. W. Austin) speak of “striking resemblances,” while Richard Netton, in his 1989 work Allah Transcendent, goes so far as to call Ibn ‘Arabi “the Meister Eckhart of the Islamic Tradition.”Fusus al-Hikem [“The Bezels of Wisdom”], trans. Ralph Austin (New Jersey: Paulist Press, 1980), p. 16. The Arabic edition used is A. E. Affifi's edition (Beirut: Dar al-kutub al-'Arabi, 1946). All page numbers to original are in bold. Ian Richard Netton, Allah Transcendent: Studies in the Structure and Semiotics of Islamic Philosophy, Theology and Cosmology (Routledge, 1989) p. 293.